The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Sunset: Venice dates from 1880.

Sunset: Venice, Private Collection

This pastel is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 813). This entry has been updated.

Images

Subject

Site

Sunset: Venice, Private Collection

San Giorgio Maggiore, Giudecca, Sta Maria della Salute and Grand Canal, photograph, M. F. MacDonald, 1997, WPP, Glasgow University Library

Venice, Italy. In the centre are the domes of Santa Maria della Salute, between the Giudecca and the Grand Canal.

Technique

Technique

Sunset: Venice, Private Collection

Discussed in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 813).

History

Provenance

• By 1903: owned by Thomas Way (1837-1915), London.
• Date unknown: possibly bought before 1906 by Walter Hamilton Hylton Jessop (1853-1917);
• 1917: possibly bequeathed to his widow Florence Emily Furlonger (1857-1950) and passed by family descent to their daughter, Katherine Helen Hylton Jessop (1891-1977);
• 1973: the property of Miss K. Jessop, sold at auction, Sotheby's, London, 14 March 1973 (lot 4) as 'Venice' and bought by Williams, London art dealer;
• 1973/1974: bought by Ira Spanierman, New York dealer;
• 1984: sold at auction, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 23 May 1974 (lot 41G, repr.) as 'Trees across a lake', and bought by Mrs Gertrude Kosovsky and Dr Harry Kosovsky, New Jersey;
• 2018: Promised Gift from the collection of Mrs Gertrude Kosovsky to the Frick Collection, New York.

Exhibitions

No exhibitions in Whistler's lifetime have been identified.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 813) as 'Sunset: Venice'.

Journals 1855-1905

• Boughton, George Henry, 'A Few of the Various Whistlers I have known', The Studio, vol. 30, no. 129, December 1903, pp. 208-18; reprinted in The International Studio, vol. 21, January 1904, pp. 208-18, lithograph by T. R. Way repr. p. 209 as 'Sunset: Venice'.
• Anon., The Studio Whistler Portfolio, London, 1905 (ten colour reproductions), repr.

Books on Whistler

• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, repr. f.p. 52

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Possibly Aquarellen, Pastels, Teekingen, Etsen, Lithographien en een Schilderij door James McNeill Whistler, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1906 (cat. no. 27' as 'The Lagoon'.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Notes, Harmonies, and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., New York, 1984 (cat. no. 84) as 'Salute – Sundown'.
• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995 (cat. no. 119), repr.
• Lochnan, Katharine, Turner, Whistler, Monet, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Tate Britain, London, 2004-2005 (cat. no. 95) as 'Sunset, Venice'.
• Whistler as Printmaker: Highlights from the Gertrude Kosovsky Collection, The Frick Collection, New York (no catalogue).

Journals 1906-Present

• 'Top five acquisitions in June', The Art Newspaper, 2019, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/gallery/acquistions.

Websites

• 'Whistler as Printmaker: Highlights from the Gertrude Kosovsky Collection, Exhibition Dates: April 30 to September 1, 2019', The Frick Collection website.
• 'Alex Gordon Lecture in the History of Art: "Whistler’s Art: 'An Arrangement in Line, Form & Colour' by Margaret F. MacDonald, Professor of History of Art, University of Glasgow', The Frick Collection, 15 May 2019, on UTube.
• 'Live from the Frick! Frick’s Senior Curator Susan Grace Galassi in conversation with Margaret F. MacDonald', 15 May 2019, on Facebook.